Sermon Tone Analysis

I came across this quote yesterday and it is so masterful in the way Dr. Steve Lawson says this and it just made me think about this message this morning.

“The gospel is more than an open invitation or free offer.

It is an imperative command that demands our obedient faith in Jesus Christ.”

Dr. Steven Lawson

It is no coincidence I came across this quote that deals with Genuine Faith, I don’t believe in coincidences be in the Work of the Holy Spirit who is the One who moved me to this quote which is fitting in light of Acts 8:25-40 that provides us with the keys to Genuine Faith.

We will see the keys in the Spirit’s movement, man’s willingness, scriptural clarity that culminates in identifying with Christ.

Acts 8:25 says this, “So when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.”

What seems to be a transition verse set up by Luke has more depth then I realized.

Peter and John were sent to Samaria to witness what God was doing in Samaria.

As it has gone the Israelites would avoid traveling through Samaria and it was not until Jesus came along that they would venture through.

Now after Jesus' ascension and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit and being driven by the persecution of the church by Saul the gospel is spreading out toward the Samaritans.

Philip proclaims the gospel message to them and then Peter and John come along and through prayer and the laying on of hands they receive the Holy Spirit.

Now as they are there with Simon the Magician Luke tells us 'they had solemnly testified the word of the Lord.'

The word here for testify is the word for warn, they were warning them and speaking the word of the Lord.

What is the warning?

The warning is involves what has already been said, the gospel has authority over the heart, it unifies the heart and exposes the heart.

Simon was not looking at what the true good news was, he was stuck in the temporal and not focusing on the eternal.

The warning points to the eternal by means of what is trusted in the temporal.

The warning also entails what Paul tells us, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil.

2:12-13).

Philippians is not about becoming saved it is actually about sanctification.

The same can be said of Peter and John testifying here to the Samaritans.

The Samaritans are have been have recieved the gospel message but even within this group of Samaritans there is one who is not demonstrating a heart of repentance which is an absolute for salvation.

Without repentance the one who hears the gospel doesn't change.

Repentance is a changing of the mind a turning from what the world, satan and the flesh tells us is pleasing and satisfying to turning to what is truly pleasing and satisfying which is staying within the boundaries of what God commands.

This is the true gospel message and as the apostles went back to Jerusalem they didn't just make a beeline for the city and keep to themselves, they went along preaching the gospel message, which entails the warning of what happens if it is not heeded, to many villages.

The Keys to Genuine Faith

Spirit's Motivation

Now Philip moved on to Samaria after the persecution began and while in Samaria he preached the gospel message and as people came to faith and word of the conversion made its way to Jerusalem, Peter and John made their way up to Samaria to see what was going on.

Now that they have witnessed God working in the Samarians and seen how the gospel unites the Israelites and the Samaritans, Peter and John take up the cause of preaching the gospel to the Samaritans.

So now that they are doing this God sends an angel to motivate Philip to go specifically to a road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.

He isn't told to go to a city but to a road.

There are no coincidences when it comes to proclaiming the gospel message.

We don't encounter people by chance, we never do.

That takes away from God's providence if we believe in a coincidence.

The Spirit moves us were we belong and as we walk with God and the stronger our walk the more we will be attuned to the Spirit's leading and guiding.

Angels do not speak to us today verbally, and God doesn't speak to us audibly but as we seek Him through prayer and His Word we see more and more the direction He wants for us.

This one thing is true, the people in our lives need to hear the true gospel and they need to hear it not just from our experience but we need to point them to what the Scripture says about sin, hell and Jesus Christ.

Man's Willingness

Philip doesn't ask questions when he is told to go.

At least Luke doesn't record that for us but judging by Philip's track record thus far he is faithful and when he is asked to move he doesn't run from his responsibility but runs head long to what God calls for him.

All he needed was to have the willingness to go, he didn't need to know the exact location or even what he was going to do, all he need was to have the willingness.

What is funny is when it comes to determination and drive in godliness and gospel ministry the one character that supersedes all others is, willingness.

We just need to be willing to go when asked and we need to be willing to trust in God and we need to willing to have confidence in God's control.

Philip was willing and as he arrived at the road he came across a man, an Ethiopian Eunuch, who was either a Jew from Ethiopia or an Ethiopian who was a proselyte.

Regardless he was on his way back to Ethiopia from Jerusalem, where he had gone to worship.

As he is on he way back home he finds himself reading the Scripture and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

Verse 29 truly brings out the main person in the entire book of Acts, the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit moves us to do godliness and the Holy Spirit provides the courage we don't have to go up to someone and explain to them what the Bible says about Jesus.

Philip once again only had to be willing.

He had to be willing to be moved by the Holy Spirit.

Now don't get me wrong all believers have the Holy Spirit and all believers can be motivated to share the gospel.

Listen I know that everyone here knows that the gospel is important but when it comes to sharing it many times we chicken out.

Is it the right time, or is it the right place or even do I know the right words to say.

This is all chickening out.

This is reluctance to giving the gospel.

There is a dire need out there people need to be warned and we are reluctant to go out and give the gospel.

We are being like Jonah when we don't give the gospel.

Jonah who was called by God to go to Nineveh to give the message of salvation to them, he was told to go to this people and warn them that they would all die in 40 days if they didn't repent and turn to God and Jonah listened to God and he got on the first boat going in the opposite direction.

He was reluctant and tried to hide from God but you can't hide from God and after three days in the belly of a great fish Jonah finally saw the error of his ways and he was willing to go to Nineveh.

Philip is willing and it turns out he is not the only one who is willing, the eunuch is willing also.

He is willing to learn, he is willing to understand and he is willing to believe.

He doesn't need to be persuaded he only needs to be guided.

That is what God does through His Word.

He guides people to faith through His word.

In fact it is only His Word that has power to save.

It is not anything else.

Our testimonies may be a way to open a door, but our testimony can't save people, only God's Word can save people.

Platitudes do not save people, God's word saves people.

The gospel is always rooted in the word of God not in man.

The question Philip brings up to the Eunuch is, "Do you understand what you are reading?"

So here we have the eunuch willing to learn and know more and Philip willing to engage in conversation about Scripture.

The eunuch's response is willingness to learn and an understanding that he can't do it on his own.

It demonstrates a reliance or trust not only in God's Word but also in God Himself.

The Spirit of God moved in the eunuch to open him up to understand one thing, he can't understand the things of God with knowing God.

God doesn't speak in riddles but God is Holy and we are not.

God is righteous and we are not, God is light and we are not.

So when it comes to His Word we need to rely on His Word being true and we need to rely on the Holy Spirit to enlighten us to what it has to say.

The eunuch comes to an understanding of this so much sooner then most so called Christians.

The Word of God is not just for the purpose of literature all though because God created language and God created literature you find there are literary generous in the Bible.

It is not a history book either all though it does tell of the history of Israel and the World.

It is the autobiography of God and His work in and through all of creation.

His Word points to Him and the only way to know this and to see this is if you are reading the Word of God for the purpose of coming to know God and know how you are live in respect to His word.

It is about knowing the Holy and the unholy can't come to the Holy, so we need to have understanding of how to come to the Holy.

When we let go of looking at the Bible as a means of just acquiring knowledge and see it as a means to come into the presence of the infinite eternal creator of the universe that is when we actually learn and grow.

We rely on God's Word which means we rely on God Himself.

Scriptural Clarity

First there s God's call, to the believer to go and spread the gospel and to the unbeliever to understand the gospel.

Next is God's Word in faith which is the only power to transform heats and lives.

Verse 23 begins with, "Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this;" Luke tells us what it was the eunuch was reading.

It was Isaiah and the actual passage is Isaiah 53:7-8.

This passage is the gospel.

Isaiah 53 points perfectly and absolutely to Jesus Christ.

It is so definitive and so precise that the Jews won't even read today.

It is called the forbidden passage in the Hebrew canon.

To think the text that the eunuch is reading was written about 738 b.c. which is about 800 years prior to the crucifixion and it points directly to the crucifixion.

So now the eunuch reads this after he has just left Jerusalem in the wake of a great persecution on the church by Saul.

So all of this has moved the eunuch to looking into this and prompted by the Spirit Himself he is prompted to turn to this portion of Isaiah.

Now here is the thing they didn't have Bibles like we do.

They also didn't have nifty little phones with their favorite Bible Apps on them.

No what they had were scrolls.